Adepticon Gladiator: Bigred’s Journey
Oh, by now the tales of woe are flying, so lets set the record straight.
Gladiator List:
2000pts
Eldrad
9 Avengers in a dual shuri-cannon waveserpent w/ stones
9 Avengers in a dual shuri-cannon waveserpent w/ stones
Vyper w/ shuri-cannon and eml
Vyper w/ shuri-cannon and star-cannon
Vyper w/ shuri-cannon and star-cannon
Firestorm w/holo,stones, shuri-cannon
Revenant w/dual pulsars
The Plan
The army has great offensive firepower in the 4 strength D pieplates per turn and decent objective grabbing speed. Eldrad would let me reposition the Revenant and the Firestorm (which is the greatest thing since sliced bread) at a minimum based on the enemy deployment. The weakness of the list would be its low scoring unit count which would require conservative use of the vypers till late game.
How It Went Down:
Game 1
I drew a very good opponent with a Space Wolves drop pod army. He was a meticulous player who knew what his army could accomplish and led on the tabletop with skill and efficiency. My conservative husbanding of my backfield units was useless in the face of crazed Wolves dropping into my deployment zone. On turn 3 the Revenant reserved in and methodically began to destroy every Space Wolf within range and LoS. My opponent realized the terrible danger of strength D and hunkered down a handful of small speedy units and waited me out. On turn 6 we both sprinted for the objectives, but alas, Adepticon rules that a titan can only contest and claim a single objective (rather than the 3 I was astride). That was it and with the Wolves having more scoring units remaining I chalked up a solid (but not crushing) loss on objectives.
Game 2
Here it is folks, the talk of Adepticon! Every mission only has a maximun of 32 victory points possible so it was believed by most that that was the largest possible margin of victory. But you all know me, always pushing the borders of the possible. At this years Gladiator, each player got a handful of tokens you could use once per day to reroll failed saves, hits, and the like. You can only use 1 per game and they cost you -1 victory points on the mission final score.
My commendable foe brought a marine list backed up with a double turbo-laser Warhound (worst case for my revenant) and a Callidus. We both deployed, and Eldrad moved my Revenant into a distant safe spot, along with the firestorm and a couple other units. Then, the Callidus used her trickery and moved my titan just within LoS by about 1/2 an inch!!! My foe’s inquisitor gave him the +1 on turn 1 which he got, and pummeled by titan with 4 strength D hits. I used a re-roll token but it was to no avail. I was immobilized and both pulsars were stunned. I moved up my army to support my baby and to hopefully buy time with their lives. A handful of Eldar fire knocked down a couple of skimmers and some isolated marines, but no major damage was done. At the top of 2, the Warhound again laid into my Revenant, blowing it skyhigh in a 12″ radius S:9 AP:3 apocalyptic explosion that took out all of my army save 2 vypers. That as they say was that…. A couple of minutes later I had filled out my mission sheet with my show-stopping -1 to 32 loss!!!
Game 3
With almost no points to show for 2 games, Mkerr quipped that I might consider dropping out while I was ahead. I might easily lose 2 further VPs in the next 2 games! Hogwash! If the Eldar are anything it is proud. My third game again matched me against a Warhound titan backed up with a Blood Angel army. This one went well. The titan got moving, and the army began to slowly destroy the Blood Angels squad by squad using the pulsars to kill units and the remaining Eldar to mop up stragglers. By turn 6 it was over, with the Warhound dead, and a few Blood Angel remnants stuck out of position. Total victory.
Game 4
This game brought the shorthanded rule, which let my Daemonhunter foe throw my Revenant into reserve till turn 4. I faced 3 Land raiders loaded with Grey knights barreling into my shuriken-cannon armed army for 3 very carefully moved turns. I made it to turn 4 with few losses, and when the Revenant arrived it was over fast. 2 Land Raiders blew sky-high along with their occupants with the pulsar’s first volley, and the remainder of the foe’s army was mopped up in short order. Total victory.
Thoughts
Well, I started slow, and ended well. I ended the Gladiator right in the middle of the pack so my honor was regained (sort of). I think the best part of the day was re-telling the story of mission 2 all day long to everyone who stopped by to talk. I have to say that win or lose, I had a blast and will be back next year. If I have to strap Solar Macharius to the canopy of my Revenant with Eldrad holding a shuriken pistol to his head, I’ll find a way to make my army even tougher.
~To everyone I faced in either victory or defeat.. I SALUTE YOU! You all are the best!
